Jaguar WON’T fit giant Infotainment touchscreens – not if Ian Callum has his way

Ian Callum, Jaguar’s design boss, has entered the discussion on giant touchscreens in cars saying it will never happen at Jaguar if he has anything to do with it.

Tesla started the whole big screens thing in cars by fitting what looks like an iPad to the centre of the Tesla Model S, since when they’ve taken it further still by giving the Model 3 little else to control functions other than its big centre screen.

These screens look so good other car makes are following suit, and more and more functions are disappearing from simple physical controls to dwell in sub menus of sub menus on your touchscreen.

They’re great for stuff like maps and displaying information on the move, but they’re far from perfect when you have to delve deep on the go to make simple adjustments. And now Jaguar’s design boss, Ian Callum, has thrown his two bob’s worth in to the discussion on the merits of giant touchscreens. He said:

If you’re driving 80-90 miles an hour — and you can in some countries, legally — you don’t want to be flipping around an iPad looking to move your door mirrors or your seat controls You need to be able to feel your way through the car without looking at it for more than a millisecond.

And he’s absolutely right, trying to find a way to give your seat or mirror a quick tweak when you’re blatting down a motorway or down a quick B-Road is something you want to do with a physical control, feeling your way familiarly to make the adjustment. Not trying to prod a thumping great screed to turn down the Climate by one degree or put your seat backrest up a notch.

But he’s probably fighting a losing battle; buyers seem to like how they look more than they worry about how they function.